Little Dragon: Machine Dreams
Little Dragon: Machine Dreams
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Friday, 21, Aug 2009 04:17
Peacefrog, out now.
In a nutshell...
Soulful, mesmerising, retro, unique
What's it all about?
The second album for the Gothenburg quartet, with single Feathers to be released later this month. When explaining the title, vocalist Yukimi Nagano says "these days, humans seem more and more like machines, and as technology evolves, machines feel more human and it becomes fuzzy and beautiful and science fiction-ish. We feel dependent on our machines to create and live, and their sounds reflect us".
Who's it by?
A Swedish group, with distinctive lead vocals from Japanese born Nagano, the group have been playing together for a while, releasing their eponymous debut in 2007 to critical acclaim and comparisons to the likes of Portishead. As well as the clear trip hop echoes, the music is soulful with a strong jazz feel and Machine Dreams sees them move firmly into electro territory.
As an example...
"Though these nights are haunting me/I don't wanna run, I don't wanna leave/Now that you're standing closer/Don't wanna run I don't wanna leave." - Blinking Pigs
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
After relentless touring Little Dragon have already found a niche for themselves in the states, with the backing of key DJs and considerable air play. How far this will take them remains to be seen.
What the others say
"An album packed with pop highlights that will light up the summer nights." - Music Week
‘"Yukimi Nagano is as magical as ever and now the edgy, uptempo beats are providing great context to her hypnotic voice." - Beyond Jazz
So is it any good?
Machine Dreams quite simply gets better every time you listen to it. Dreamy, soulful and transient, there are clear points of comparison within Little Dragon's style, from the older 90s sound of the Sneaker Pimps and Morcheeba to name a few, through to more modern sounding electro. Yet despite these influences, the band have a distinctive style of their own.
Opening track A New seethes and fizzes over from the slow, deliberate opening dub-sound into Nagano's heady, resonating vocals. The song lasts four minutes, but somehow seems to pass in a matter of seconds, leading seamlessly into the complexity of beat-heavy Looking Glass. Nagano's unique and haunting style is the first thing which strikes you about Little Dragon, but after listening to Machine Dreams it is possible to get completely lost in the complex arrangements of synths and dub sounds. The music persists at a leisurely pace, which initially takes some getting used to, but despite this there is never anything same-y or flat in the arrangements.
This is an album which should be listened to as an album, rather than sliced and diced into arbitrary track downloads. In its entirety, Machine Dreams has an evocative and overpowering quality and though it's difficult to pick out individual tracks, a clear forerunner is the brilliant if more mainstream sounding Blinking Pigs.
If there can be any criticism of the album at all, it is that Blinking Pigs marks something of a peak and the final two tracks are perhaps less distinct sounding than the rest of the album- this is, of course, all relative.
8/10
Julia Ross